Web posted
Sunday, July 8, 2001
Fisheries timeline
1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. -- Kachemak Riverine Culture flourishes along the Kenai River. Notched stones found today suggest that gillnets were used to fish the Kenai River.
1000 A.D. -- Dena'ina Indians replace Kachemak people. Dena'inas fish salmon from weirs on Kenai River tributaries.
1786-1791 -- Russian traders establish forts at Nanwalek, Kasilof and Kenai.
1867 -- The United States buys Russia's Alaska interests.
1878 -- Alaska Com-mercial Co. opens a saltry at the mouth of the Kenai River, catching red and king salmon with dipnets and weirs, ships 150 barrels of salted salmon bellies to San Francisco.
1879 -- Western Fur and Trading Co. of San Francisco opens a salmon saltry at the mouth of the Kasilof River. In 1880, it ships 169 barrels of king bellies and 185 barrels of coho bellies.
1882 -- Alaska Packing Co. of San Francisco builds a cannery at the mouth of the Kasilof River and packs salmon taken with drift gillnet boats. Mechanized canning, financed by U. S. railroad barons, allows mass production of preserved fish for export.
1880s -- Fish traps largely replace the early driftnet boats. Canners win legislation to license the traps and limit their numbers.
1888 -- Northern Packing Co. of San Francisco opens a cannery at the mouth of the Kenai River.
1915 -- The Kenai Peninsula's white population equals the Native population.
1918 -- Influenza decimates Natives, whose population drops below the white population.
1941 -- The United States enters World War II.
1942 -- Alaska-Canada Highway is built.
1948 -- Returning WWII soldiers revive the Cook Inlet drift gillnet fishery.
1952 -- A treaty between the United States, Canada and Japan bans Japanese salmon driftnet boats from fishing east of 175 degrees west longitude. The Japanese begin taking an average of 5 million North Pacific salmon per year.
1952 -- Upper inlet commercial salmon fishers are limited to two 24-hour periods per week, with no closed season.
1957 -- Upper inlet commercial salmon fishing opens for five 24-hour periods each week.
1957 -- Discovery of Swanson River oil ends fisheries as the peninsula's sole economic base.
1959 -- Alaska becomes a state, fish traps banned, the Board of Fisheries and Game created. Alaska Constitution reserves fish and wildlife to the people for their common use.
1961 -- Drive for limited entry begins.
1964 -- Cook Inlet commercial driftnet opening is delayed until June 25 to protect king salmon.
mid-1960s -- An influx of oil workers, teachers and professionals swells interest in sport fishing.
1968 -- Sonar fish counters are installed on the Kenai River, allowing scientific management.
1968 -- Oil is discovered at Prudhoe Bay.
1969 -- Kenai River escapement goal is set at 150,000 sockeyes. Just 53,000 enter the river.
1971 -- Cook Inlet commercial fishers are limited to two 12-hour periods per week, with emergency openings when fish are plentiful.
1972 -- Kenai River escapement goal is raised to 150,000 to 250,000 sockeyes. Some 318,000 enter the river.
1972 -- Voters approve the limited entry amendment to the Alaska Constitution.
1973 -- Limited Entry Act passes. Salmon prices rise and canneries begin selling their boats to fishers.
1973 -- Widely publicized photo of Spence DeVito with an 80-pound Kenai River king sparks sport-fishing interest.
1974-77 -- Construction of Trans-Alaska Pipeline brings more people.
1975 -- The upper Cook Inlet sockeye catch has averaged around 1 million per year since 1954.
1976 -- Congress passes the Fishery Conservation and Management Act, claiming authority over fishery resources within the 200-mile limit, requiring renegotiation of international fishery treaties.
1976 -- Shifting oceanographic conditions improve survival of Alaska salmon.
1977 -- New protocols ban Japanese high seas salmon fishing east of 175 east longitude. Japanese fish inside the U.S. 200-mile limit by permit.
1977 -- Soviet Union kicks Japanese fishing boats from its exclusive economic zone.
1978 -- Through intimidation, the Soviet Union closes areas outside its exclusive economic zone to all fishing, sets quotas for the Japanese high seas salmon catch and begins ratcheting those down year by year.
1978 -- First corridor fishery for Cook Inlet drift boats.
1978 -- Sonar installed on Susitna River.
1978 -- Kenai River escapement goal set at 350,000-500,000 sockeyes. Some 399,000 entered the river.
1978 -- East side setnet closure set at Aug. 15 to protect silvers. Upper Cook Inlet Salmon Management Plan sets sport fishing priority until July 1, commercial priority from July 1 to Aug. 15, and sport priority after Aug. 15 for Kenai and Susitna cohos.
1977-80 -- Japan begins aggressively buying Alaska salmon. Alaska processors shift from canned to frozen salmon, cash buyers appear, Cook Inlet fishers invest in new equipment, big boats.
1978 -- The Legislature enacts a priority for subsistence in times of shortage.
1980 -- The National Interest Lands Conservation Act requires the state to give rural Alaskans a subsistence priority.
1980 -- World farmed salmon production is 7,000 metric tons. Upper inlet sockeyes bring 85 cents per pound.
1981 -- Board of Fisheries applies criteria to identify customary and traditional uses that eliminate most Cook Inlet subsistence fishing. Kenai and Kasilof River personal-use dipnet fisheries created. Subsistence gillnetting is changed to personal use, and in later years, flops between personal use and subsistence.
early 1980s -- Anglers discover that it is possible to fish Kenai River sockeyes with flies.
1982 -- Joint Boards of Fish and Game limit the state subsistence priority to rural Alaska residents.
1984 -- Legislature creates the Kenai River Special Management Area.
1985 -- World farmed salmon production is 59,000 metric tons. Cook Inlet sockeyes average $1.20 per pound.
1985 -- Les Anderson catches world record 97 1/4-pound king from the Kenai River.
1985 -- The Alaska Supreme Court strikes the regulations that establish the state rural subsistence priority as inconsistent with state subsistence law. It finds that subsistence cannot be solely for rural residents.
1986 -- Federal officials find the state out of compliance with ANILCA. The Legislature amends state law to limit subsistence to rural residents, bringing Alaska back into compliance. Under the state definition of rural, most of the Kenai Peninsula is nonrural and ineligible for subsistence. The Kenaitze Indian Tribe argues in U.S. District Court that the state's definition is inconsistent with ANILCA.
Late 1980s -- Boom in guided fishing for Kenai River king salmon.
About 1986, Soviets allow Japanese fishers back into their exclusive economic zone.
1987 -- U.S. denies Japan a permit to take incidental marine mammals, ending Japanese salmon fishing inside the U.S. 200-mile limit.
1987 -- Kenai River escapement goal is raised to 400,000-700,000 sockeyes. Glacier Bay spill restricts fishing and 1.6 million sockeyes enter the Kenai River. Angling for Kenai River sockeyes becomes popular, and the Kenai River dipnet catch, previously insignificant, reaches 24,000 sockeyes. Upper inlet commercial fishers take 9.5 million sockeyes.
1988 -- Sockeye price peaks at $2.47 per pound. Kenai River escapement is 1 million sockeyes.
1989 -- Exxon Valdez spill restricts fishing. Kenai River escapement is 1.6 million sockeyes and the sport and dipnet sockeye fisheries boom.
1989 -- The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals finds the state definition of rural inconsistent with ANILCA, finds the Kenai Peninsula to be rural and directs the U.S. District Court to grant a subsistence fishery to the Kenaitzes.
1989 -- The Alaska Supreme Court strikes the state rural subsistence preference as contrary to the common-use clause of the Alaska Constitution, putting Alaska out of compliance with ANILCA.
1990 -- Federal managers take over management of subsistence hunting on Alaska's federal lands.
1990 -- The state Board of Fisheries finds that all Alaskans are subsistence users and adopts an upper inlet subsistence salmon plan.
1990 -- World farmed salmon production reaches 255,000 metric tons. Upper inlet sockeye price averages $1.55 per pound.
1990 -- A United Nations resolution bans high-seas drift nets more than 2.5 kilometers long outside the 200-mile limit of any nation. The illegal high-seas catch remains significant.
1992 -- Alaska State Parks considers limited entry for Kenai River guides. Attorney general says the proposal is unconstitutional.
1992 -- The Legislature enacts a law requiring the boards of Fish and Game to identify nonsubsistence areas. Most of upper Cook Inlet becomes a nonsubsistence area, and the upper inlet subsistence salmon plan is rescinded.
1992 -- The Legislature outlaws finfish farming in Alaska.
1992 -- Upper inlet fishers take 9.1 million sockeyes.
1993 -- The United States, Russia, Canada and Japan join in enforcement to end illegal high-seas fishing.
1993 -- An Alaska Superior Court orders the state to allow the Kenaitze fishery to continue as an educational fishery pending the final outcome of litigation. Educational fisheries are created for the Ninilchik Traditional Council and other tribes. The court finds that the state's nonsubsistence areas are unconstitutional.
1994 -- The upper inlet subsistence salmon plan is reinstated.
1995 -- The Alaska Supreme Court re-establishes the state nonsubsistence areas. The Board of Fisheries changes the upper inlet subsistence plan to a personal use fishery plan. The tribal educational fisheries continue.
1995 -- World farmed salmon production reaches 533,000 metric tons. Upper inlet sockeyes bring $1.15 per pound.
1996 -- Board of Fisheries restricts the Kenai River sport coho fishery, moves the commercial driftnet closure to Aug. 9 to protect cohos, ends personal-use gillnet fisheries in most of Cook Inlet, creates seven-day-per-week dipnet fisheries in the mouths of the Kenai and Kasilof rivers and doubles the sport-fishing bag limit for Kenai River sockeyes.
1996 -- Kenai Peninsula Borough passes Kenai River habitat protection ordinance, restricting development within 50 feet of the river.
1997 -- East side setnet closure set at first period after Aug. 10.
1997 -- Kenai River Comprehensive Management Plan recommends a study of crowding on the Kenai River with an eye to controlling the guided fishing industry.
1998 -- World farmed salmon production (801,000 metric tons) surpasses wild salmon production (752,000 tons). Upper inlet sockeyes bring $1.15 per pound.
1998 -- Ward's Cove closes its Kenai plant. Icicle Seafoods in Homer burns.
1999 -- Board of Fisheries says manage Northern District and Kenai cohos for sport fishing, ends the July 1 to Aug. 15 priority for commercial fishers, and says manage sockeyes, pinks and chums mainly for commercial fishers and kings for sport.
1999 -- Dragnet Fisheries closes.
1999 -- Federal managers take over management of subsistence fishing in federally controlled waters of Alaska.
2000 -- East side setnet fishery closure set at Aug. 7, with no more than one emergency opening after Aug. 1.
2000 -- Scientists say oceanographic conditions may lower the survival of Alaska salmon for the next 10 to 15 years.
2000 -- Sockeyes average $.85 per pound. Cook Inlet catch was 1.3 million sockeyes.
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